Friday, December 01, 2006

As you can see (unless you're reading the feeds) I have completely changed the look of the blog. This is still work in progress: the template needs to expand and I don't like all the green in the design. Your comments are welcome.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

8. Discriminatory and Dishonest Immigration System.Immigration to Canada is based on a point system, obtained with your education, qualifications and job experience. Points are good enough for immigration, but in Canada, they are not good enough to get a job in your field. Amazing, how the credentials that qualify you to come to Canada are the same credentials that don't qualify you for your profession in Canada. The reason is, Canada only wants immigrants to do the labor jobs - pizza delivery, driving taxis, factory work etc.

7. Out Of Control Cost Of Living.From rent, to utility bills, to shopping, to phone, internet and cable bills, to gas, to car insurance, to eating out, to basically anything you have to pay for or buy, the cost of living in Canada has become astronomical. Recent immigrants are astonished as to how expensive everything is. It is estimated that compared to most countries around the world, the cost of living in Canada is on average five times greater.

6. Health Care Crisis.Practicing physicians in Canada are in a shortage, 1 in 4 Canadians cannot get a family doctor. Canadian doctors are leaving to move permanently to the United States. Statistics Canada and the Canadian Medical Association both have identified that for every 1 American doctor that moves to Canada, 19 (nineteen) Canadian doctors move to the United States! Doctors in Canada are overworked and underpaid, and there is a cap on their salaries.

5. Very High Taxes.Yes, you have the GST, the PST, totaling 15%, on practically everything you purchase and many other taxes taken out of our weekly paycheck. You have to pay a whopping amount to the government, out of your hard earned salary, so that the government can turn around and give it to beer drinking, hockey watching welfare bums. Fair? It does not matter, it's Canada.

4. Money Hungry Government.Canadian Embassies around the world lie to foreigners, painting this picture that Canada is Utopia, because they want them to come to Canada. Why? Because foreigners bring money! So after being deceived, these foreigners come. They must bring with them at least $10,000. Canada has an immigration quota of 250,000 per year. So please do the math, 250,000 multiplied by $10,000 each equals a whopping 2.5 Billion dollars that Canada gains from immigrants every year.

3. No Culture.Unlike almost every other country in the world, Canada has no culture. Actually American culture is what dominates Canada. When was the last time you had some 'Canadian' food? There are no Canadian traditions and there is no national identity. What does it even mean to call yourself a 'Canadian'. . .nothing really. People living in Canada, still identify themselves with the country they 'originally' came from.

2. Worst Weather.Yes, Canada has the worst weather conditions of any country in the world. Freezing cold temperatures, snow, ice, hail, winds, storms etc. From the Prairie provinces to the Maritimes, from the Territories to southern Ontario, the weather is so horrific and disgusting that many Canadians leave Canada simply because of this reason alone.

1. No Jobs.Yes, coast to coast, there are no jobs. Immigrants are highly qualified (MD's, PhD's, Lawyers, Engineers etc.) but they are driving taxi cabs, delivering pizza's or working in factories. Even people with bachelors degrees from Canadian Universities cannot find jobs after graduation. This is the tragedy associated with immigration to Canada. I feel sorry for those immigrants who are stuck in Canada for the rest of their lives. It is indeed a very sad and hopeless future.

Monday, October 09, 2006

I finally managed to go behind a waterfall, one of my lifelong dreams (OK maybe one of the smaller dreams). A unique and fun as the experience was, I can't share it with you using pictures. But you can check out the view of the waterfall. Actually, this is a different waterfall, the picture of I one I'm talking about is in pictures.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

45 days is pretty long time to look at dead trees waiting for flowers to show up while in many other places in the world people have been enjoying the beauty of spring since 20th of March. On the bright side, they've lost all the pretty flowers by now and we have fresh flowers in Toronto. I've posted a few pictures of spring including this widescreen background:

Enjoy!

P.S. Did you know these yellow flowers actually have medical purposes? Wish I remembered the name to post some info on that but if anyone knows the name, please help me out!

Friday, April 28, 2006

After reading Official Google Blog: Avoiding RSI I started looking for a good tool to avoid RSI (aka Repetitive strain injury, a disorder affecting bone and muscle from repetitive movements) and found Workrave. Now I can't stop using it:It has 3 break timers:1. Micro Breaks (asking your to stop and rest for a few seconds)2. Rest Breaks (A few exercises follow by a few minutes away from the computer)3. Daily Limit (Tells you when to stop working for the day)All of the above are fully customizable and optional. If you spend a few hours or more on your computer you should try this great tool. It makes a big difference.

Monday, April 17, 2006

The Ultimate Proxy Guide is a guide to existing proxy servers, finding new proxy servers at any time using Google and starting your very own proxy server!(BTW Proxy servers are those sites that allow you to by-pass internet filters and access blocked web sites... in case you didn't know.)

Saturday, April 01, 2006

This is nothing new, but since it's a clever one, I thought I post it to the world!

Here's how it goes:- Mr X receives an email from a Paypal email address telling him about an unauthorized access to his account.- He freaks out, and clicks on the login icon to fix the issue ASAP without checking where the link points to is not paypal.com. One of the links even reads "https://www.paypal.com/us/" but if you move the mouse over the actual link, of course it's not paypal.com.- They ask him for his Paypal login (which of course, they store and use later to take money out of his account!)- Then they log him in and ask for his credit card info: Credit card number, expiry and even The PIN and the security code. Now at this point Mr X should realize what has happened and change his Paypal password ASAP. But if he's stupid enough to give his PIN to a company (you shouldn't even give your PIN to the bank) then he really deserves what's coming!- Finally they log him in to the real Paypal web site. Since Mr X typed in his real PayPal login, he's now logged into PayPal. Once he's into his normal PayPal page he looks up sees the PayPal domain on top of the browser and doesn't even know what hit him until the credit card statements come in!

Here's a copy of the e-mail itself (Paypal's really fast in taking these fake sites down, so don't expect the links in this sample to work):

We recently noticed more attempts to log in to your PayPal account from a foreign IP address.

If you accessed your account while traveling, the unusual log in attempts may have been initiated by you. However, if you are the rightfull holder of the account, please visit Paypal as soon as possible to verify your identity:

If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choise but to temporaly suspend your account.

We ask that you allow at least 72 hours for the case to be investigated and we strongly recommend to verify your account in that time.

Thank you for using PayPal!The PayPal Team

Please do not reply to this email. This mailbox is not monitored and you will not receive a response. For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the Help link located in the top right corner of any PayPal page.

Friday, March 17, 2006

Under The Azure Dome Under the Azure Dome - A program to celebrate Norouz (Persian New Year) at Harbourfront Centre, Toronto will take place from today (March 17) until March 19, 2006. Today there will be a concert but on Saturday and Sunday there will be lots of programs such as dance, comedy, movies and more concert. This is supposed to be the biggest Persian event in Toronto yet so don't miss it!

Friday, March 10, 2006

This year Chaharshanbe Soori (Persian Festival of Fires on March 14) will take place at two locations: in addition to the usual Sunnybrook Park, it will take place at Mel Lastman Sq. at 5100 Yonge Street (North York).

The program at Mel Lastman is completely different and is planned to have DJs, Music, Food and of course fireworks...

Update: Initially I thought the even is taking place at Mel Lastman only, but according to ShahreMa TV (Sun March 12) the even at Sunnybrook park is still on and like last year there will be buses to commute between the park and the free parking locations at Eglinton/Leslie. I'm actually glad, Mel Lastman is nice but Sunnybrook is old-fashioned and I really prefer to keep the jump-over-the-fire tradition... But nevertheless Mel Lastman sounds good too and it sponsored by more people...

Update2: I went to Mel Lastman Sq. They tried to do a good program but it just didn't feel like Chahar Shanbe Soori. I mean no jumping over the fire and even worse they even banned sparklers! I really hope next year we do it at Sunnybrook Park again or I'm done with Toronto!

Q: "You are shrunk to the height of a nickel and your mass is proportionally reduced so as to maintain your original density. You are then thrown into an empty glass blender. The blades will start moving in 60 seconds. What do you do?"

Q: "How would you find out if a machine's stack grows up or down in memory?"

Q: "Explain a database in three sentences to your eight-year-old nephew."

Q: "How many gas stations would you say there are in the United States?"

Sunday, February 19, 2006

I believe it has been over 3 years since I last published a Windows tip but the Windows XP 15 Minute Tune-Up is not to be missed by Windows users, so have a look. Many of the tips are those I've done myself for years and simple as they may seem, they really do make a difference in your computer's speed.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Museum of Hoaxes is an interesting (and I must add: huge) collection of hoaxes. You find just about everything from retouched photos you've already seen in your inbox to April Fool's Day jokes from centuries ago.

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Here's a quick tech tip to protect you in the new year: You might receive emails from Yahoo! or other big name companies about your account. With some of these there's really no way to tell real email from virus. Except you should know, these companies never send you any information as an attachment. So if the email's professional and has an attachment there's a 99% chance that it's a virus. In fact don't ever open attachments until you can absolutely be sure that they come with a private message from people you know.